Tag Archives: family

I don’t know about you guys, but the last month has been non-stop back to school photos on my Facebook and Instagram timelines. I actually got to be a part of it this year, because my sweet baby boy started preschool!

We had loads of fun shopping at Target for his school supplies. He felt like a ‘big kid’ picking out a backpack after he saw an older kid looking at them, too. “Mommy! I’m going to school like that kid!”

Ugh, slow down a bit. I can handle preschool, but I’m not ready to think about elementary school yet.

Check out my recent YouTube video for a look at what we picked out. Also, my hair is wild in this one.

How did your first day back go? Tell me all about it in the comments! Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I have lots of fun product reviews and a giveaway coming up soon!

My child loves to watch Grav3YardGirl‘s Does This Thing Really Work? videos on YouTube. When he’s feeling sleepy or in need of a cuddle, he’ll climb into my lap and ask, “Mommy, can we watch a Bunny video?”

It took me a while to find them, but I tracked the bubble machine down on Amazon and even found some refill kits.

I was skeptical, even after watching Bunny’s review…But this thing is actually pretty great! We spent an hour or so blowing cherry bubbles all over the back yard, and I managed to catch a few…they actually DO taste just like cherry! O’s strategy was to stick his face right in front of the machine, and he caught a lot of bubbles, but he didn’t like getting the bubble solution all over his face.

You get two packets of bubble solution with the machine (cherry and grape), and refills are available in packs of three flavors. The packet of cherry lasted a lot longer than I thought it would, and we even got a little more mileage out of it by pouring a little water in at the end.

I’m not sure if you’re supposed to do that. Maybe don’t be like me.

The machine takes 4 AA batteries and you’ll need a little screwdriver to get the back panel off. I picked up an eyeglass repair kit that’s super handy for these things.

I love this thing. As long as it holds up, I can see it providing hours of summer fun for my boy. In fact, I may not have to make a dessert for the rest of the summer. Dinner’s over? Go outside and play with your bubble machine!

Just don’t drink the bubble solution…I’m pretty sure it says specifically not to on the box.

Like this:

We got up early on Saturday morning and made the journey to the Big City for PBS Kids in the Park. My boy LOVES PBS shows like SuperWhy, Dinosaur Train, Daniel Tiger, and Curious George. He was beyond excited to meet the characters he watches, and he even got to have a snack and do a fun craft with Curious George. As we walked around Military Park, he would point at the different characters and yell, “HI ALPHA PIG!” and “I LOVE WORD GIRL!”

After we’d seen all there was to see at the PBS Kids event, we took a stroll down the canal. Indy is really a beautiful city, and in the summer I highly recommend taking a day to just walk around aimlessly.

O even got to feed some ducks after a nice boy gave him some cereal.

Our walk took us closer to the circle, and we remembered that Pride was also going on that day…So we decided to check it out. O was asleep in his stroller, so we took our time checking everything out. We even bought a bumper sticker!

Because it was so hot, and also because some big dummy (ahem, me) forgot to put sunscreen on, we headed to Circle Center mall because, air conditioning. O was still sound asleep, so we took advantage of the massage chairs that were sitting in the lobby. Two minutes for a dollar sounds like a hell of a bargain when you’ve been walking all day.

I also ended up with some cool new shoes.

Once O was awake, we grabbed dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery and stopped for ice cream in a shop on Monument Circle. By the time we started making our way back to the van, it was close to 8:00.

This also happened, and now I wish I had been holding my phone the entire time. I’m guessing we actually walked close to ten miles altogether.

On Sunday, we ventured over to our town’s Strawberry Festival for lunch. Our first stop was to visit The BF’s grandparents, who always display their pedal tractors. While O was playing with the tractors, I decided to rest my weary legs by having a seat in his stroller. I was unable to talk The BF into pushing me around. For lunch, I had a bison burger and cheese fries topped with bison chili. Delicious! The BF had some ribs, and we both shared with O. Even though I didn’t really want to.

After lunch, we stopped at our friend’s photo booth before heading home. O thought it was great fun to wear the helmet and watch himself on the screen.

I capped off the weekend by finishing a book and having a glass of wine… Well, I tried to drink a glass of wine, but I managed to nod off before I even drank half of it.

Like this:

My kid isn’t quite two yet and I already have artwork proudly displayed on my fridge. I was looking at it the other day, and I got to thinking about just how much art one kid can generate in a childhood.

Spoiler alert: It’s a lot.

I know this because my mom kept all of the artwork my brother and I made. Actually, I’m fairly certain she kept every piece of paper we brought home from school in our little backpacks. The entire collection of two kid’s elementary school careers is housed in a big walk-in closet on the second floor of my mom and dad’s house. While it’s a lot of fun to look at, the sheer volume of stuff makes it a little overwhelming and, quite frankly, I worry that it’s a fire hazard.

But what exactly does one do with a child’s artwork? It just feels kind of heartless to throw it out, especially when your sweet boy comes to you beaming with pride and hands you a paper covered with his scribbles (and, ok, maybe some snot). Of course, you tell yourself you’ll just keep a few…maybe you’ll just keep the “really good ones”. Or maybe you’re the rotation mom, hanging it on the fridge fully intending to toss it once you have a new masterpiece to take it’s place. But somehow, these scribbles never quite make it to the trash can do they?

Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a way to…I don’t know…Digitally archive your kid’s work so you could throw out all of the paper with a clear conscience? And wouldn’t it be even better if you could end up with a way to display your child’s artwork without having to buy frames or poke holes in walls? I think you all know me well enough by now to understand that I actually have a solution for you.

Enter: ArtKive.

Artkive provides an amazing service for people looking to better organize and store their kids’ artwork. With Artkive Concierge you just send them all of your child’s art and they professionally photograph it and turn it into a beautiful, keepsake book.

How easy is this?!

I happen to think these books would make wonderful Christmas gifts for grandparents. And how about sending your child’s art class masterpieces in at the end of each school year? You would have a book for every year, neatly displayed on a bookshelf.

This would also be a sweet end-of-year gift for a teacher. Collect artwork from all of the students in class and let ArtKive do the rest of the work. If I were a teacher, that would be the kind of gift I would treasure for years…And it would totally make me cry.

Thursday evening, I made two pies… I had planned to only make one, a coconut cream pie for The BF’s grandpa (his birthday was Saturday), but the BF wandered in and asked if he got a pie. I had everything to make a chocolate pie, so I went ahead and made it because I’m such a pushover giver.

Top: Coconut cream pie Bottom: Chocolate mousse pie

The BF was super pleased with his pie. Friday evening we took the coconut pie to Grandpa, and he said he had no plans to share it with anyone. He did offer a slice to The BF.

“No thanks, I don’t really care for coconut.”

“I know!” was Grandpa’s reply, and then he cracked up.

I was super relieved that he liked it so much, because I’d never made that kind of pie before…And I did it completely from scratch, from making the graham cracker crust, to separating five eggs for the custard, to the whipped cream, to even toasting the coconut. Also, who knew real, homemade whipped cream was so amazing? I may be addicted.

Saturday morning, MIL and I took O to the local farmer’s market. We found tons of awesome fresh produce and lots of people to chat with. I ended up with an eggplant, some cute yellow pattypan squash, Concord grape jelly, and creamed honey. MIL stopped to buy a green pepper and the nicest guy handed O a cute little pumpkin. He promptly threw it to the ground, of course, but luckily the man just laughed.

I didn't get a pic of the pattypan because it didn't last very long.

We stopped for lunch at my favorite Chinese place. I ordered cashew chicken and MIL had General’s chicken…we both got the hot and sour soup because it’s the best you’ll ever have. O was happy to eat everything we shared with him, and he wasn’t phased at all by the spice in the soup or the General’s chicken…He’s going to like it spicy like his mama, I think, and I couldn’t be more proud.

O took a nice, long nap once we got home, and when he woke up we headed to the State Fair. O had his first ever ear of Indiana State Fair roasted corn on the cob, and he loved it so much that he didn’t want to give up the empty cob. He also split a blue raspberry shaved ice with his daddy, and he loved the pieces of breaded tenderloin I shared with him.

After we filled our bellies, we wandered around checking things out. I rode an elephant ( her name was Libby), and we bought a jar of maple cream at the pioneer village.

We made sure to check out some animals, and the boy found a new friend in a nice little goat. The BF and I also found coffee mugs that I really should have bought.

He had to give the goat kisses when we left.

Once it got dark, we headed to the midway. O rode a couple of rides with Daddy (mama would barf). I think O loved the excitement, because there was a lot of pointing and clapping and waving and, “See? SEE?!”

We all had a blast and slept extremely well when we got home.

Sunday, I did some cleaning and The BF worked in his office while O ran around in an outfit he picked himself.

That afternoon, my SIL came over with my sweet niece and the kids chased each other through the house. There was a lot of squealing and giggling and THUMPTHUMPTHUMPing. The boy had so much fun that he slept until almost 9:30 this morning.

It was my favorite kind of weekend, full of family time, good food, and a lot of laughter.